Bom dia camaradas by Ondjaki

Bom dia camaradas Reviews

• 
  Kavita

  Do you feel nostalgia for a communist past that never existed? Do you strongly miss your childhood even if it was lived in the midst of war? Do you think that school days were the best days of your life even if you could barely stand getting up in the morning? If this is your frame of mind then there is no better book than Good Morning Comrades for youThe debut novel of famous Angolan author Ondjaki Good Morning Comrades follows the daily life of Ndalu The schoolgoing boy lives with his middle class family and goes to a good school He and his friends are taught by Cuban teachers who garner great respect because of their dedication to the revolution There is also a visiting aunt from Portugal completely clueless in the ways of communism and AfricaIn many ways the novel is lighthearted depicting a portrait of life from the worldview of a child Though shortage and war are ever present in the background the story is not emotionally heavyhanded and puts its point across brilliantly The students are well fleshed out and school life in communist Angola was well depicted The ability to follow instructions without uestioning is deeply ingrained at school and this affects the way Ndalu and his friends experience the outside world Ndalu's school stories play a pivotal role in the narrative where misinformation rules The lack of awareness of his own purchasing ability is brilliantly shown by means of a Portuguese aunt who brings presents for everyone and has no clue why the President of Angola reuires a guard Of course this means that the aunt had to be made completely dumb but I feel I can forgive that in view of the otherwise amazing narrative The book brings out the strong influence of Cuba Russia and Portugal on Angola I have rarely been impressed with child narrators but this one was just perfect I think Good Morning Comrades would be a perfect addition to anyone's bookshelf
• 
  Friederike Knabe

  Good Morning Comrades is the delightful debut novel by Angolan author Ondjaki pen name for Ndalu de Almeida Published in 2001 in Portuguese and engagingly translated by Stephen Henighan 2008 it launched Ondjaki's writing career that has brought him recognition and several international literary awards For this novel which tells the coming of age story of Ndalu and his school friends Ondjaki mined his own memories of childhood and experiences while growing up in Luanda the capital during the conflicting and difficult times of Angola's early years of independence Seeing the world through the eyes of a growing boy daily life however is preoccupied with school games friends and family The parades the power struggles between the regime and its opponents are noted but not understood and have little bearing on the daily life of the children Their naïveté protects them from getting into trouble; they don't ask uestions; the world is fine as it is When for example Ndalu is chosen to make a May Day speech on the radio and his own prepared text is replaced by another text for him to read he doesn't uestion this decision Nor does he uestion the privileges of his own family in comparison to the poverty of others in his class They are all together and support as well as tease each other He does wonder though why his aunt visiting from Portugal does not know anything about ration cards and could at home buy as much chocolate as she liked The school features prominently in the novel in particular classes with the Cuban teachers They are often the subject of the children's discussions Still over time they develop a real affection for them – without uestioning why they are there in the first place – and when they like most other Cubans in the country at the time leave Angola they are sad to see them leave Their departure coincided with the year end of the last school year The young people will be scattered into different directions and for the first time Ndalu experiences personal loss sadness and insecurity about what the future will hold Good Morning Comrades is a simple yet vividly told story The reader easily connects with Ndalu and his friends Below the surface Ondjaki touches on many issues that the young country and its people had to deal with Stephen Henighan's very informative Afterword is highly recommended reading as it places the novel in its historical context and greatly contributes to a deeper understanding of its importance in the literary treatment of Angola's early years as an independent country that was caught very much in the middle of the Cold War and its competing international interests
• 
  Stacia

  Simple charming child’s eye view of life in Angola during revolutionary changes civil war in the 1990s The Afterword provides a lot of good historical context about Angola's history as well as the various changes that were going on in the 1990s Even though the book is fiction the author has said that it is semi autobiographical based on his own childhood in 1990s AngolaRecommended especially for those who enjoy books from around the world
• 
  David

  Good morning ComradesWhat a profoundly funny yet sad first book by the Angolan writer Ondjaki Having been mesmerized by Transparent City and hearing a podcast interview I looked forward to this small bookAngola early 1990s as seen through the eyes of a 12 year old boy Ndalu From 1988 to 1991 Cubans had leant support to the left leaning NPLA government fighting the right wing militias supported by South Africa The civil war lasted from 1975 to 2002 Ah yes the Cold War yearsDuring this time Ndalu and his friends were taught by Cuban teachers and all referred to each other as “comrades” The students took part in recording slogans taking part in parades preparing for attacks and supporting the cause From our western sense it sounds like a lot of “red” propaganda Add in a mythical terrorist group Caixão Vazio Empty Coffin and you have a added sense of fearEvery day the family gathers for lunch and their father turns on the radio Yet Ndalu says that everyday the news is the same First they talk about the war then the aspects of the battles then the politics South Africa is our enemy but the ANC is our friend but their leader Nelson Mandela spent most of his time in jail Most confusing to a twelve year oldDid I mention this is a comedy? As told from a child’s sense of the world all these things take on a comical sense During this time their aunt from Portugal comes for a visit On an outing to the beach the vast cultural differences appear When the President’s entourage goes by all traffic must stop and everyone gets out of their cars Why? Not just a sign of respect it’s a security issue Did you know in Portugal the president can walk to a friend’s house for coffee? He walks on foot? In Africa presidents drive in armour plated Mercedes replied Ndalu His imagination gets the better of him during the highlight of the book the “attempted” attack by Caixão Vazio He even tries to resolve the issue by getting the story from each of his student colleagues The result is a great laughThis mix of humour politics human foibles loss and even sadness for the departing Cubans makes this an enjoyable read as well as getting another perspective on a time and place so unknown to me Well done
• 
  Sofia

  Ondjaki's writing style is very simple making it an easy read However the way that the narrator tells the story so simply is shocking when you realize the reality that he lives in and how normal it is This books has very well developed themes which make it a great book for discussion groups
• 
  Mary Mav

  45 le petit nicholas thrown in a serious situation during civil war in Angola I was blown away
• 
  Bjorn

  Out of the mouths of babes Good Morning Comrades is set in Angola in the early 90s among civil war and supposed post colonialism spearheaded by the liberating comrades from Cuba and the Soviet Union with roving gangs of bandits and political unrest And all witnessed through the eyes of a 12 year old boy who's never known anything else and is just as cheerfully proud of it all as you'd expect of a good citizen I'm always a bit worried when I stumble upon a novel written by a poet; there's always the risk of trying to write like a poet weighing the novel down with language But like a good poet Ondjaki knows the value of language how to tell a story simply without the narrator realising just how many different layers there are to his story how much of history echoes in his language
• 
  Jason

  Fast short and fun A take from the eyes of a school boy the author of Luanda urban life during the civil war Personally I found amazing some piecesuotes on man’s as in person duty towards society Although Ondjaki managed to create a good atmosphere of 80s Luanda for me it lacked the immersion to the child's vision and way of thinking as in The Cubs and Other Stories by Llosa or La noche de los alfileres by Roncagliolo Depth of story may seem initially shallow but over the course you come to realize that it is just magnificent through simplicity All in all I found very nice signs of writing and eagerly wait to read from Ondjaki in the futureBottomline A nice uick read to work as a entrance to the African literature
• 
  Kevin Pedersen

  This is a simple but evocative story about a boy in Angola who is about to finish school structured around two big disruptions that threaten to come into his life The first is all anticipation but ultimately baseless as rumors and lies about a local gang causes a panic in the protagonist's school one afternoon The second comes as a surprise but has lasting conseuences as the Cold War suddenly ends sending Angola into a period of rapid change a change that it's not mentioned in the novella but comes out in a post script does not go well and leads to a bloody civil warFraming the story around these two poles works nicely and there are nice moments of wit and description through the book It's full of innocent but damning descriptions of life under Soviet Marxism normalized through a child's point of view so nothing seems overtly political which I'd say makes it effective Pretty breezy read too which doesn't hurt
• 
  AJ Payne

  Read for office book clubI was really excited to read this one It takes place in Angola and it's uite rare for a fiction book out of Angola to be translated to English and it takes place on the cusp of the brief peace in angola's civil war Pluses it was meant to address what it was like to have Cuban teachers and living in a place where war was going on so long it was normalized The back cover made it sound greatWell it wasn't It was boring there was zero plot and beyond even that there was zero character development Plus the stories the boy told of his daily life felt rather pointless So as a story the book was completely lackingBoosted to two stars because it still presented an interesting look at what living in a relatively privileged family in 1990 Angola may have looked like and probably did as this story is supposed to be uite autobiographical Anyway major disappointment here with the story if not the subject